If At First You Can't Succeed...

If at first you can't succeed at semiconductor research, steal it from someone who does it better. It worked for a Chinese researcher who scammed a copy of a US chip and then had someone scrub the existing trademarks off the chip:

The university and later the government launched an investigation into the Hanxin chip series after receiving a letter in December from a whistle-blower alleging that Mr Chen had faked the research behind it.

Xinhua, the official news agency, said Mr Chen had “fooled” technical appraisal teams from the university and government ministries that had funded his project into believing that he had developed the chips himself.

“On the basis of the investigation summaries, the university concluded that Chen’s deeds had flouted academic ethical codes and the university constitution, and had brought the research community into disrepute,” the Xinhua statement said.

Mr Chen’s chip was neither based on technology he said he had developed himself, nor could it perform the functions he claimed for it, the short statement said.

The 21st Century Business Herald, a respected newspaper that has pursued the case, reported that Mr Chen had taken chips produced by Freescale Semiconductor, formerly a unit of Motorola, and then used low-paid migrant workers to scrub its trademarks off and replace them with that of Hanxin. Neither company was available for comment.

Mr Chen’s own project had received Rmb114m ($14.2m) for research to develop the Hanxin chips. Xinhua said he had been asked to pay back the money.